Teen Ink Forums

Suicide

"I just think if you know how many people will be hurting by the act of suicide, and you choose to go through with it, then that's selfish."

Some people who commit suicide really do have nothing left. No incentive to live, no family -- people aren't there to care if they die. Not every suicide case is some teenager killing themself over an internet comment, and in fact, almost none are. Please consider a more realistic perspective on this.

"I don't think you can pin this issue down with a solid "no" or "yes"," and yet you just did: "As a human being, no, you don't have the right."

As far as my opinion goes, yes, you absolutely have the right to do it. No question about it, it is one of the (if not THE) most fundamental rights anyone can have. The role of a right to suicide is to, even if you've lost control of every other aspect of your life, to ultimately give a person control over their own life. I think to deny someone that ability is among the most horrible things any person can ever do. It is absolutely awful.

Do I think people should commit suicide? In most cases where it's considered or even attempted, no. And I think that trying to talk someone out of it does not even begin to deny them their right to control their own life. The decision's still up to them, and filling them in on the negative aspects of what they're considering doing (which they often don't consider), only helps their decision-making abilities.

But should they be able to? A million times yes. A billion times yes. 10^10^10^10^10^10^10 times yes.

You know, that pic was a contest entry. Who wants to wish me luck? lol //shot/

I'm just thinking if a person i knew was gonna commit suicide, id try to talk them outta it. But if it seems like they've totally made up their mind and that nothing else i do will change it, then ill support them. That's just me.

Genesis 6:5 (NASB)
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

I don't have an opinion yet. But this verse helps me figure out what I think about non-christians. It seems to me, the root question here is "Do people have the right to not beleive in God". However, this question is loaded. We have to ask if all people beleive in God. According to the bible, even the strong atheist has some sub consceince that acknowledges his existance. Because every human has some ammount of awareness of God, every human has some knowlege of God. And every humans has some knowledge of the laws of God. This pre-existing knowledge is sometimes called the conscience.

Back to the bible. In the beginning, we find that God created the entire universe. If this is true, God technically owns everything. He even owns you and me. But, He gave us a choice to disobey Him. Not to obey Him but disobey (As the story goes, Adam was created perfect. But God gave Adam a choice to disobey Him).

I'm blabbering. XD This is what happens when I don't know what I think. The question changed from "Do people have a right to commit suicide?" to " Do people have a right to not believe in God" to " Do people have a right to disobey God".

Contemplator: I agree that every atheist has some small piece that wants to believe in God or some sort of higher power. This is not necessarily because God exists, however. It can be explained very simply by the fact that we hardwired by our genetic code to have at least some predisposition towards the supernatural based off of our evolutionary history (its the group theory stuff again, which I think I've explained several times elsewhere, but if no one remembers, I'll explain it again.)

sorry jumping in, but i think that suicide is not a good choice, if someone has a bad life then we should try to incurage them, not tell them they have the right to kill themselves, on the other note i think mebe they have the right, but its still wrong to do so, even if they have that right according to the bible we dont have that right but we have the right of free will to follow God or not, vary interesting ussue, has anyone here ACTUALY had a friend commit suicide?

So, to be clear, you do realize you are saying that you don't believe atheists or those of other religions can be good people, right? Pardon me if I'm skeptical, but I doubt you really mean that.

As a fairly strong atheist myself, I am personal evidence against your claim. There is no part of my body or mind that "acknowledges his existence." Sometimes I have wished that I could make myself believe (ditto with many supernatural things and some conspiracy theories), but I have always quickly brought myself back into the broader context of reality afterwards, and my ultimate conclusion is that I'm very glad to be an atheist. I'm very glad to know that I don't have to be afraid of hell, that I don't think I have to worship the god -- frankly, an immoral monster -- depicted by Christianity or any other of the world's major theistic religions. I'm not a person prone to hallucinations or that "shadow person" feeling, so I've never had any awareness of god or any other supernatural events. I can't have without my mind playing tricks on me -- I know for a fact that none such things exist, and I know in fairly good detail about the neurology and psychology that causes these impressions in people.

Also, to clarify, the conscience has little to nothing to do with a belief (or lack thereof) in a god or anything supernatural. You might want better word choice in the future.

About going back the the bible -- for one, you should know that I have no reason to believe the bible is a book of truth (if I did I wouldn't be an atheist), and so any arguments based on it simply fall flat as far as I'm concerned. And secondly, not everything that is created by someone is owned by that person. I created a piece of art once that I sold at a charity auction. It no longer belongs to me. At all. Neither does the money that someone paid for it. Also, your argument banks on the existence of true free will... which, I guess, is an argument for another thread and another time ;)

And, if such is the case with the Christian god that the answer to all three of your questions is "no," then that's all the more reason to wonder why Christians continue to worship such an immoral monster.

If the post came off as harsh it is partly, but probably not entirely, intentional.

No. But I did have a someone very close to me come close while I was around. It was very, very scary. I still think about it sometimes and freak out a little. So yes someone has a "right" to commit suicide, but it is still a horrible choice that is never the right one.

I disagree. Don't deal in absolutes -- I can think of plenty of situations in which it is the right thing to do. Painful terminal illnesses come to mind. People sold as a s e.x slave or something of the like, with no way out of their situation, also come to mind. I could list more, but I'd rather not.

Also, apparently the filter ate my entire long post from earlier and I didn't realize it until now. I'll see about re-typing it when I get over the immense feeling of being cheated.

i think that if you say that suicide is the only choice you are dealing absolutes also, is it ever right to take such a beautiful thing as life and give it up?
im not saying that every person who has commited suicide was bieng selfish.
but, ( i know niether of you hold this as anything whatsoever) the christian bible says that it is not the right choice.
as for the s.ex slave thing you mentioned:
i agree that is horrible at best, but i know people who have been in that situation, they fought
untill they were free, if they couldnt be free they
would then die, but not by there own hand, this is another vew to concider

"i think that if you say that suicide is the only choice you are dealing absolutes also"

Never did I say it would ever be the only choice. You ought to read more carefully. What I did say, is that sometimes it is the best choice.

"is it ever right to take such a beautiful thing as life and give it up?"

Not all life is as beautiful as yours. Some lives are patently horrible (see "se.x slaves").

"i know people who have been in that situation, they fought"

If they know that they'll die if they fight, and they fight anyways, how is this not suicide? It doesn't matter who's hand it's done by. If a person makes a conscious choice to end their own life, then they are committing suicide. It doesn't really matter, in that case, whether they die "by their own hand" or not.

"if they know that they will die if they fight anyways, how is this not suicide?"
number one suicide is the taking of your life.
not someone els taking it, number two if it is not the only choice how would you decide what the best one was?
three you dont know what my life is like so dont bring that up as it makes no argument.
four, it does matter whos hand it is done by.
if it is murder its diferent than suicide, death is death, i agree, but i also think that in the court of law they are diferent.
if it aplies there it aplies elswhere.
and what i ment by life bieng beautiful is not implying that everyones life is "good"
its implying that life in itself is sacred.
and are you saying that everyone who gave there life in war were suicidle? not murdered?
and how, believing in evolution do you intend to judge right from rong?
since life is chance and "survival of the fit"
giving the impression that things like this would not matter or have diference in the large scale of
things.
hopefully i did better wording this than other posts, yall tell me if im getting better.
and if im not..... itle be obvious

"number one suicide is the taking of your life. not someone els taking it"
Okay, right of the bat you CLEARLY did not even consider what I just said. I already explained this, and honestly, I'm so tired of your antics at this point that I'm simply not going to reply to the rest of your post if you start it off like this. Please actually read and consider my previous post. Thank you and goodbye.

Passive suicide: The letting go of one's own life. You don't actively TAKE your own life, but you LET someone or something else take it. It's still a form of suicide. Maybe not the one stuntddude is talking about with the s.ex slave fight-even-though-i-know-i'm-gonna-die situation, but it is still suicide where you're not technically taking your own life.